


Never Guess What I Heard

by lavender coin (idyII)



Series: divergent paths [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, M/M, Qrow accidentally makes friends: the short story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:07:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24493987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idyII/pseuds/lavender%20coin
Summary: Qrow was a spy by nature. It wasn't just his job; he liked to spy on people, just for a little bit of fun, and no one ever suspected a crow hanging around. It meant he got to hear all the gossip and embarrassing shit. He especially liked to eavesdrop on the Ace Ops. He was curious, so what? And they were pretty funny. And he definitely was not using it as an excuse to spy on his (very obvious) crush. It wasn't as if he was going to get caught.(He gets caught.)
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: divergent paths [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751065
Comments: 8
Kudos: 91





	Never Guess What I Heard

Even though Oz had turned out to be ~~a lying bastard~~ some measure of _untrustworthy_ , one might say, in the end, Qrow did enjoy the little bit of magic he'd gotten out of the deal.

He remembered when he and Raven had first started learning how to shapeshift. They spent a lot of time bickering up on Ozpin's balcony while he sighed and rubbed his forehead, then made a game out of who could make a full transformation first. There had been a lot of panicked falling involved (but Raven would never admit to that). And of course, actually learning to _fly_ was another ballgame. He'd always been a little smug about the fact he got transforming down first. Of course, his sister had to show him up by achieving a smooth glide before him, but he had still won out by integrating transforming into his fighting so smoothly. He transformed on the battlefield so much to get out of tight spots and get a bird's eye view that it was a wonder no one else at Beacon had ever noticed.

Those were...happier times. They had flown in loops around the school together when they wanted peace and quiet. They'd made a game of dropping things on Tai, too, before he knew about the magic.

But that was a long time ago.

He was by himself nowadays, but that wasn't so bad. It meant he got to eavesdrop.

"Come on, just ask her out," said Nora below him, knocking her teammate in the shoulder and making him wince. She stood on one of the outer walkways after returning from a mission (well, crosswalk duty could hardly be called a mission) and Jaune tried to ignore her gleaming smile.

The poor kid was beet red. "I dunno, Nora," he said, sounding hesitant. "I don't know if I'm ready...besides, I don't think she'd be very interested in me."

"Oh, come on! Did you not see the eyes she was making at you? Ren? Ren? Back me up here, Ren!"

The young man in question sighed, only barely holding onto the formal posture he usually walked around with. He looked like he wanted to melt into a puddle of goo on the pathway.

Qrow rolled his eyes. He was perched on a light pole above them, hunched over to try and stave off the cold; he would guess that Nora was talking about an older sister or something of one of those kids Jaune guarded during school hours. The guy really did need to get a date, get some confidence. He'd come to Qrow practically desperate on how to deal with the crosswalk moms giving him casserole after casserole (that was an easy answer, really, just eat them- free food).

But, the awkward shuffling and blushing of young romance wasn't very interesting. With little noise, he jumped off the pole and took off, flapping his way to a different part of the base.

He landed on a different pole as two familiar forms came walking across another walkway. It was Winter, marching forward like always, and Weiss following after her, looking hopeful. "And how did your marksmanship training go?" Winter was saying, sounding way too formal to be talking to her own sister, but that was Winter, he supposed.

"It went better this time!" Weiss exclaimed with a smile. "I hit nineteen out of twenty-"

"That's good. A three point improvement from last time. Be sure you hit twenty the next."

Winter did show a little emotion there, looking vaguely proud, but behind her, Weiss wilted a bit, pouting. Qrow rolled his eyes. God, did he really need to give the Ice Queen a lecture about proper older sibling-ing? Couldn't she handle it on her own? Winter didn't even realize Weiss was so desperate for her approval. He wondered if all Schnees were bad at showing their emotions.

It seemed he was slated for boredness today. There was nothing interesting going on in the least.

His eyes settled on a familiar ship coming in towards one of the loading bays. The operative teams had different designations, and he had memorized the one that the Ace Ops used. For mission purposes, that is. Now _that_ could be interesting. He pushed off and flew across the outer yard, swooping down as the ship descended onto the bay, and he settled himself on the edge just above the door as it rumbled beneath him. It settled and powered off, then the door began descending.

Voices floated out before it was fully on the ground. "Remember, you two," a particular one that definitely didn't make him perk up said, "when you use that move, you need to keep in mind that if anything destabilizes Vine it could send you both flying, so be careful."

"Yeah, yeah," came a sigh from Harriet, sounding beleaguered. "We'll do _better_."

Qrow rolled his eyes again. He could see why they had all been chosen- they did compliment each other well- but there was one vital thing they lacked in comparison to other teams, and that was the years of experience that came with fighting with one's team from the Academy. STRQ had been so seamless they'd never even had to talk to each other in battle, at one point. It was like a single pulse that ran between all of them. There were many weaknesses he could pick apart in the Ace Ops' formation, but he supposed that wasn't his place.

Clover stepped out first. Qrow stared down at the back of his head, wondering for the hundredth time how he wasn't cold without any sort of jacket. "But," he was saying, and probably smiling, judging by his tone, "overall, we did quite well. A mission success."

And that was why Clover was the leader, Qrow thought. He could make corrections while still being encouraging. Those arms were certainly encouraging.

_Dammit, think about something else._

The rest of the operatives filed out behind him. Elm was whistling, something cheery, and Qrow had to resist a strong urge to leap down and perch on the top of her head. She was just so damned tall, she was like a tree.

"I'm just glad for a chance to have a normal mission for once," Marrow said, walking with his arms folded behind his head. "No babysitting!"

Harriet snickered. "You're still here, though."

He opened his mouth to retort and almost tripped, which made the rest of them snicker, save for Clover, who shook his head a little.

"The kids weren't all that bad," Elm interjected, grinning. Qrow pushed off the ship and glided as they entered the base, coming in to perch on the doorway again. "They've got guts! And enthusiasm!"

"They're quite brash, as well," Vine added, laying down some dirtied gloves as they started checking over their gear. However, he didn't sound as if he meant it entirely negatively. "They seem very ready to jump into every battle."

"And _that_ could get someone hurt," Harriet pointed out, frowning a little, as she propped herself against the wall with folded arms. Qrow felt a thrum of irritation, but he couldn't help it; they were kind of (okay, definitely were) all his kids, and he felt defensive.

"You may not be entirely wrong," Clover said, turning and sitting down on a crate as he rubbed his right forearm, where a faint bruise was. "Some of them do seem a _bit_ quick to the trigger, but, overall, I think they veer more towards simply having fast reflexes and being quick on their feet. You have to remember, they were on their own all the way up until they got here. When you're in the wild, you have to be that way just to survive."

Aaaaand the smugness Qrow felt whenever someone complimented his kids was back. He edged his way onto some of the piping overhead, crawling his way across the room. There were _reasons_ he found Clover much more tolerable than...well, everyone.

"Well, they weren't completely on their own," Marrow piped up. "They had that Branwen guy with them, remember?" That made Qrow pause, curious. It was always better to know how people talked about you when you weren't there, in his opinion. "How was he, by the way?"

They all looked at Clover, who just raised an eyebrow. "Actually, we didn't see much combat ourselves, but he is as competent as they say, trust me." Qrow definitely, absolutely, did not preen at that. "He's quite interesting." He took on a slightly different tone, and it wasn't like the- flirtiness? That had been flirting, hadn't it?- from before, but there was a different glint in his eye. "Apparently, his Semblance is misfortune, which is why he tends to work alone."

To Qrow's surprise, no disgust or anxiety appeared on any of their faces. In fact, Elm leaned forward, clapping her hands against her knees, eyebrows shooting up. "Wow, really? That's like, the opposite of you! I bet you could pull off some interesting moves with that!"

"I guess that's why you two got paired together," Harriet said as she sat down, stretching out her shoulders. "Seems a little bit like cheating. I mean, if he's as good as everyone says, _and_ gives his opponent bad luck? Pretty wicked."

"I wonder if he _is_ as good as everyone says."

Vine hummed. "Perhaps we'll get to see on our next mission together."

"Well, I certainly hope so," Clover said with an amount of cheer Qrow found unbelievable. He found it unbelievable that they all thought his Semblance was like some shiny new toy they wanted to see shown off. He found it unbelievable they weren't automatically worried about getting offed in his presence, too. "I definitely want to see more of how he moves on the battlefield."

Harriet snickered. "I bet you'd like to see more of how he moves off the battlefield, too," she teased, then held up her hands when Clover gave her a chastising glance. "What? I may not swing his way, but even I can tell when a man is pretty."

 _Aaaand that's my cue to leave,_ Qrow thought, his whole tiny body feeling warm; he would have been pink by now if he was in human form. He didn't even want to hear what Clover had to say in reply to that. He flew out the door, hearing a mild "Huh, a bird," from behind him as he did.

But still, if they wanted a show of his abilities, that was what he'd give.

* * *

The Ace Ops didn't exactly seem the most welcoming at first, but something about getting a chance to see their chatter made Qrow feel mildly more comfortable around them. He still didn't really talk to any of them much, hanging out in the cockpit most of their flight on their mission the next day, which was hilarious since Harbinger clearly made the pilot nervous.

Still, Clover gave him a wink and a friendly "Good luck, partner," before diving out of the ship, and Qrow stubbornly ignored the butterflies in his stomach.

This time, they were clearing out a mass of Grimm that had gathered near the Amity site. Even Grimm sometimes formed groups for power and safety, he supposed. Technically, there wasn't much of a game plan when he jumped out; no one had told him to go anywhere specific, and Clover hadn't mentioned teaming up with anyone, so Qrow decided to fly it solo at first. Literally, as he scouted out the battlefield as a crow. He decided to start at the top of the cliff overlooking the clearing most of the Grimm were in, where a Sphinx was sleeping, just to be what Summer would have said was "stupid, dumb, reckless, and totally badass" in her days as team leader. 

It was about ten minutes in when Clover's voice came over the comms, echoing over the sounds of battle. "Qrow! Where are you?"

Aw, he was _worried_. That was cute. Qrow reached up to click his ear piece on, firing some shots at the Manticores on a cliff shelf with one hand. "There was a Sphinx on top of the cliff," he said, when he finally thought it was on. These things were finicky.

"You killed a Sphinx by yourself?" Marrow yelled- well, screeched, more like- over the line.

"Uh, yeah?" Qrow replied. Sure, it had been a little tricky, but he wasn't balancing on a rickety train and worrying about five or so kids around him, so that made it easier. "Figured it would make it easier to deal with all the Manticores."

"Wait, what Manticores?"

Qrow barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "Look up," he said, dryly, then stopped worrying about the comms at all. He would probably need two hands for this.

He fired into the face of the one nearest him and used it to propel himself off the shelf. He collided with another one that had come out of the nest on the cave on that level, but he already had his scythe out, and he left it in half as he started bouncing between the airborne Grimm like a ping pong ball with blades.

The only winged Grimm left let out a scream as it careened towards him. Qrow swung around and shot off, hooking his scythe into the tip of its left wing and using the momentum to take it flying towards the cliff again. He fired a round that freed his weapon, then swung it in a full arc, beheading the thing before embedding Harbinger into the cliff and letting himself slide down towards ground level. A beowolf tried to leap on him as soon as his feet hit the ground, but he just smacked it with the broad side of his sword.

He looked up and spotted Marrow standing a few yards away. "Dude," he said, eyes like dinner plates. "That was awesome!"

Qrow aimed at him, making him squeak for a moment, and shot the Grimm coming up behind him. "Eyes on the prize, people," Clover said over the comm.

"Right! Sorry, sorry!"

Clearing out the rest was basically child's play. The team had taken care of most of the Grimm on the ground anyway, so there weren't many left. It was interesting, how the other Hunters acted after battle. They said they weren't friends, but they were still fairly friendly; Elm gave Harriet a high-five, and the speedster immediately started teasing Marrow, while Vine looked on and rolled his eyes.

A hand clapped his shoulder. Startled, Qrow did a half-turn and found Clover smiling at him. "That was some pretty impressive work up there," he said, with that same glint in his eye from the day before. A bit of heat rose up Qrow's neck. "But, I prefer the team at least stays within eyesight of each other, if that works for you?"

"Sorry," Qrow said with a small shrug, hoping the cold would keep most of his flush down. "I'm used to keeping to...my own part of the field."

"Trust me, the Ace Ops can handle anything thrown their way, and we can work on getting better at predicting that Semblance of yours." Clover winked at him, hand still on his shoulder, and yeah, he was definitely starting to turn red now. Dammit. "But, you aren't to blame. I did forget to call anything out before we dove in. For the future, why don't you stick with me so we can back each other up?"

"Uh- yeah. Sure."

Clover smiled again. It was so...goddamn disarming. Qrow didn't even feel like he'd been chastised.

"Lucky me, huh?" the man said with another wink, then he was reaching up to his ear to call for their transport and heading back towards his team. Qrow really hoped he didn't look like he had that time he'd first run into a window and had to sit there while Ozpin explained they would sometimes get confused as real birds did and Raven failed to hide her laughter under her breath.

Judging by how Elm was glancing over at him though, all giant grin and bouncing on her heels and looking victorious about something, he probably did. Goddammit.

**Author's Note:**

> p.s. updated social tumblr @lavender-idyll! (lowercase L's)


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